Coupled oscillations in Antarctic sea ice and atmosphere in the South Pacific sector

Interannual oscillations with period of about 3-6 years have dominated the winter atmospheric and ice variability in the Ross, Amundsen, and Bellingsh ausen Seas, Antarctica, during 1979-1998. Anomalies in sea ice concentratio n and drift propagate eastward in the winter ice pack, coupled to sea level pressure anomalies. This signal accounts for the ice and atmospheric compo nents of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave during its eastward passage through the Pacific sector of Antarctica. Sea ice concentration anomalies at the i ce margin seem to result from air-ice-sea interactions which involve both t he dynamic effect of the anomalous, wind-driven ice motion, and the thermod ynamic ice growth and melting due to surface air and ocean temperature anom alies.